Pencil-sharpener.



PATENTED MARwS, 1908. M. A. CAMERON & W.' H. OOWLES.

PENCIL SHARPENER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 14, 1907.

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MYRTLE A. CAMERON, OF KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, AND WILLIAM H. COWLES, OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS.

PENCIL-SHARPENER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 3, 1908.

Application filed May 14:. 1907. Serial No. 373.609.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, MYRTLE A. CAMERON and I'VILLIAM II. CowLEs, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at Kansas City, IVyandotte county, Kansas, and Rockford, county of I'Vinnebago, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pencil-Sharpeners, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to pencil sharpeners and more especially to that class embodying a reciprocatory blade, and our object is to produce a device of this character by which a pencil can be sharpened without any preliminary cutting.

A further object is to produce a device of this character which will operate efficiently and reliably and is of simple, strong, durable and cheap construction.

T these ends the invention consists in certain novel and peculiar features of construction and organization as hereinafter de scribed and claimed; and in order that it may be fully understood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, in which,*

Figure 1, is a side view of a pencil sharpener embodying our invention and also shows part of a desk or support to which the sharpener is detachably secured. Fig. 2, is a top plan view of the device. Fig. 3, is a rear end view of the device. Fig. l, is a central vertical longitudinal section. Fig. 5, is a cross section taken on the dotted line V of Fig. 4.

In the said drawing, 1 indicates a substantially U-shaped frame having a tongue stamped from its base and bent to form a rearwardly disposed hook 2 equipped with a clamping screw 3 having a swiveled clamp plate 4 of common and well known type.

5 indicates a pair of stops projecting up from the base of the frame near its front end and 6 a standard projecting upward from the base and provided with a forwardly tapering recess 7. Rearward of standard 6 is a second standard 8 rising from the base-and provided with a U-shaped recess 9 in its upper edge.

10 indicates a pair of parallel guide rods which extend from the rear arm to the front arm of the frame and above the base thereof, said rods being inclined downwardly and forwardly with respect to the base and having a slight upward curvature near their front ends for a purpose which hereinafter appears. The rear arm of the frame is provided with a hole 11 between the guide rods, with its axis in longitudinal alinement with the centers of recesses 9 and 7, and journaled in said hole 11 is the hub portion 12 of a tubular ratchet wheel 13, the ratchet wheel fitting against the rear side of said arm and being held in place by a collar 14 secured to the hub at the front side of said arm. 15 is a spring or equivalent detent engaging the ratchet wheel to prevent back rotation of the same and 16 a lug projecting from said arm and forming the means of attachment to the latter, of the detent.

' 17 indicates a series of springs secured to the rear side of the ratchet wheel and extending forwardly through the same and its hub and each bent to form a pair of inwardly proj ecting humps 18 for reliably gripping a pencil as hereinafter explained.

19 indicates a slidable knife carrier of inverted-U-shape in side view, with its arms 20 and 21 slidably secured upon the guide rods and bifurcated and beveled at its front end between the last-named arms as at 21.

22 is a handle projecting upward from the rear portion of the carrier and preferably 1 formed by stamping a tongue from said carrier and bending it to the shape shown, said handle being bent to form an oblique shoulder 23 as an abutment for the rear edge of the knife 24 mounted flatly upon the carrier, the sharpened edge 25 of the knife projecting beyond the latter as shown clearly, the plane of action of the knife being such that when its forward or operative stroke is ended its cutting edge shall occupy a plane just above the alined centers of the ratchet wheel and the recesses 9 and 7. The knife is provided with a slot 26 paralleling its cutting edge and extending through said slot and engaging the carrier is a clamping screw 27, a washer 28 being interposed between the head of the screw and the knife so as to more reliably clamp the latter rigidly in position.

29 indicates a bell crank lever pivoted at its front end to the base of the frame as at 30 l with its front arm disposed in the path of forward movement of arm 20 of the carrier and in the path of rearward movement of arm 21. The other arm of the bell crank projects rearwardly through a slot 31 in the rear arm of the frame and terminatesin a tooth 32 held by the resiliency of the lever 29which is of spring meta lagainst the ratchet wheel.

To sharpen a lead pencil 33, it is shoved forwardly through the ratchet wheel and recess 9 until its front end abuts against standard 6 as shown in dotted lines Fig. 1, the carrier occupying the position shown in full lines. The carrier is then slid forward so that its blade shall slice or cut off that portion of the pencil in its path, the bifurcation and the beveling of the bottom of the carrier at 21 enabling the latter to follow the knife over-the severed portion of the pencil without contact with the latter. Just before the knife attains the position shown in dotted lines Fig. 1, one of the rear arms 20, strikes the upwardly projecting arm of the bell crank and operates the same so as to cause it to assume the position shown in dotted lines Fig. 1 and full lines Fig. 3, the stops 5 being immediately afterward engaged by arms 21 to arrest the forward movement of the knife carrier. The knife carrier is immediately withdrawn to its original position and just before it attains such position the upwardly projecting arm of the bell crank is struck and swung rearwardly by one of the arms 21 of the carrier, this action effecting the depression of the toothed or rear end of the bell crank and through the-latter rotatable action of the ratchet wheel in the direction indicated by the arrow Fig.3, this rotatable action incidently rotating the pencil so that the latter shall present a new surface to the knife on its next forward stroke. The re ciprocatory knife action described continues until the pencil has been rotated one or more times and has therefore been trimmed to frustum-shape at its front end, when the pencil has been revolved about one-half or three fourths of the way around it can be shoved forward through the recess 7 a sufficient distance to bring its upper portion again within the plane of the knife and it will be seen that when the pencil has been turned more than once around it will be advanced by the knife as the resistance to forward sliding movement is less than that offered to the knife by the wood. Eventually the knife trims the wood down to the lead and the forward movement of the pencil continues until a lead point of sufficient size projects from the wood, it being noticed that as the knife'at its forward limit of movement is slightly above the longitudinal axis of the pencil, the lead of the latter is never out quite to its center, it being further noticed that the curvature of guide rods 10 tends to give the knife a relatively slight upward movement while in engagement with the lead so as-to avoid breaking the latter. It will thus be seen that with this device a pencil can be originally sharpened or can be resharpened without danger of breaking the lead and that such sharpening action can take place as rapidly as one can manipulate the knife carrier. .After the pencil is completely sharpened it is pulled rearwardly out of the device.

From the above description it will be apparent that we have produced a pencil sharpener possessing the features of advantage enumerated as desirable and we wish it to be understood that we do not desire to be restricted to the exact details of construction shown and described as obvious modifications will suggest themselves to one skilled in the art.

Having thus described the invention what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A pencil sharpener comprising a frame provided with longitudinally alined standards having recesses in their upper ends to receive and support a pencil, downwardly and forwardly inclined guide rods on the frame, a reciprocatory carrier mounted on said guide rods and extending over the stand ards, and a knife secured to said carrier.

2. A pencil sharpener, comprising a sub stantially U-shaped frame provided with a pair of longitudinally alined standards having recesses of different sizes in their upper ends, guide rods extending downwardly and forwardly from the rear to the front arms of naled in the rear arm of the frame and provided with a passage through which a pencil is adapted to extend, springs extending through said passage to squeeze the pencil yieldingly between them, a reciprocatory carrier mounted on said rods and adapted to operate in a plane above the standards, a knife secured to said carrier, and means actuated by the rearward movement of the carrier to turn said support and incidently'the pencil.

3. A pencil sharpener, comprising a substantially U-shaped frame equipped with means for securing it to a desk or equivalent support, and provided with a pair of longitudinally alined standards having recesses of different size in their upper ends, the recess of the forward standard being smaller and the recess of the other standard larger in diameter than the lead pencil, guide rods extending downwardly and forwardly from the front to the rear arm of said frame and curved slightly upward near their fronts ends, an inverted-U-shaped carrier mounted on the the frame, a rotatable pencil support jourrods and having its body portion in a plane In testimony whereof we affiX our signaabove said standards, a knife secured to the tures, in the presence of two Witnesses.

carrier and projecting forwardly beyond the MYRTLE A CAMERON same, a handle for the carrier, a rotatable WILLIAM H COWLES.

pencil support mounted on the rear arm of the frame and provided with a passage in Witnesses to Myrtle A. Carnerons signaalinement with the recesses of said standards, ture: springs secured to and rotatable with said support to hold a pencil firmly therein, and means actuated by the rearward movement of the carrier to impart rotatable movement to the pencil support.

H. O. RODGERS, G. Y. THORPE.

Witnesses to W. H. Cowles signature: JOHN L. CUsTER, AMZIE E. JORDAN. 

